Vending machine



Oct. 22. 1929. F. M. SMITH VENDING MACHINE 2 Sheets-Shee Filed March 17, 1927 To SMITH M; c?

A TTOR/VASYS 0611.22, 19291 s rr 1,732,422

VENDING MACHINE Filed March 17, 192'! z sheets-sheet 2 lm E/VTOR FRED 01/004 570 JM/Tl/ BY M g Patented Oct. 22, 1929 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE VENDING MACHINE Application filed March 17, 1927. Serial No. 176,173.

ed tofall in passing to delivery and means operable by the purchaser for intercepting the fallingball in its passage downwards along the passage, as will be more fully described in the following specification, in which the actuating means generally.

Fig. 2 is a front view showing the vertical panel.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken on the line 33 of Figure 1.

Fig. 4 is a front view of the device.

In the drawings like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in each figure.

The numeral 1 indicates generally a cabinet having a base 2, side walls 3, a rear door 4, a front 5 having a glazed door 6 through which a vertical panel 7 dividing the cabinet transversely, is displayed. The top portion of the cabinet is divided to form a supply compartment 8 having a floor 9 sloping from both side walls to the centre, and having a hinged top cover 10 which affords access to the compartment. In the front of the comartment 8 a viewin a erture 11 is rovided shown in dotted line in Figures 1 and 2, so that the quantity of gum balls available for delivery may be readily determined. At the intersections of the sloping portions of the floor 9 of the compartment 8 a duct 12 is formed, which communicates downwards with a corresponding recess 13 capable of holding one or more gum balls, extending tov the front face of a block 14. The block 14 is slidably mounted and is slotted longitudinally for the greater portion of its length as at 15, to receive a stationary blade 16 which, as the block is drawn sidewise of the cabinet by the pull rod 17, intersects the recess 13 5x0 to close the lower portion thereof against com- Fig. 1 is a rear view of the device showing in the duct 20 so that a coin dropped into extension 25 into engagement with the stop munication with the compartment 8. The 1 block is capable of continued sidewise movement until the lower portion of the recess 13 isdisposed opposite to an aperture 18 in the upper centre of the vertical panel 7 so that the ball thereinis free to pass through the aperture and fall. The block 14 is returned to normal position by a tension spring 19.

Extending inwards through one of the side walls 3 is a duct 20 through which a coin or slug is adapted to pass to release the pull rod 17 for operation. This duct extends downwards as at 21 at the rear of the panel 7 and is adapted to discharge into a money box 22. Supported by a pivot 23 is a swinging arm 24 provided at its upper end with a horizontal extension 25 normally engaging the lower edge of the pull rod 17 in advance of a stop 26 formed by notching the lower edge of the pull rod as indicated at 25. Inter mediate the length of the arm 24 is a tongue 27 having a face 28 normally in the same plane as the inner face of a slot 29 in the rear of the coin tube extension 21 and which is provided with a projection 30 at its lower extremity, normally projecting to the inner faceof the slot. The arm 24 is held by a light spring 31 in the position shown in Figure 3 with the stop 30 passing through the slot 29 said duct will be brought to rest upon the stop.

The coin when held in the duct prevents the arm from swinging inwards and raising its 26 on the pull rod 17 thereby permitting it p to be outwardly drawn to release a ball from the supply compartment. Between the stop 26 on the pull rod 17 and the block 14, is an incline 32 which, as the rod is outwardly'eo drawn, depresses the horizontal extension 25 and swings the arm 24 outwards, withdrawing the stop 30 from the coin duct extension 21 to release the coin. The panel 7 is provided with an elongated horizontal slot 33 below which, on the rear side a guide rail 34 is mounted for the purpose of carrying a slide 35 which supports a figure 36 preferably representing a person running across the face of the panel. The figure is provided with an dispose the receptacle 37 in treme left of the receptacle 37 in register with the aperture 38, so that the ball may open backed receptacle 37 which is adapted to register, when the figure 36 is at the extreme left of the slot 33 with an aperture 38 in the panel 7, which aperture communicates with a further aperture 39 through a pipe 40 which is disposed at the rear of the panel. Extending rearwardly from the lower centre front of the cabinet is a shaft 41 having upon its rear end a slot-ted crank 42 which is operatively connected to the slide 35, and having a knob 43 on the 'front end'by 'whichit is turned by the operator to move the figure 36 acrossthe panel 7 and to so dispose the receptacle 37 to catch the ball as it falls from the aperture 18. I may prefer to provide a light tension spring 44 from the crank 42 which would be anchored to the rear of the panel 7 as at 45 for the-purpose of returning the figure 36 to its :extreme left position and to dispose its receptacle 37 in register with the aperture 38, so that a ball having been caught will be delivered to the purchaser on the release of the knob. At the base of the panel 7 is a floor 46which is inclined downwards to a discharge aperture 47 havin communication with a delivery tray 48. l rojecting from the front face of the panel 7 are a plurality of pins 49 which are staggered in any desired manner,

so that as a ball falls from the aperture 18 it bounces or drops from one pin to another 1I 1 a very lrregular manner to confuse the person operating the machine and to render skill necessary to so turn the knob 43 as to position to catch the ball in its flight.

' If the operator fails to catch the ball it falls onto the floor 46 and rolls therealong, passing downwards through the discharge aperture 47 and-into the delivery tray 48, but if he displays the necessary skill to catch the ball, he then turns the knob 43 anti-clockwise to dispose the ball filled receptacle 37 opposite to the aperture 38 of the pipe 40 into which it rolls and is discharged through the aperture 39, finally dropping onto the floor 46 from whence it is delivered into the tray 48 throu h the aperture 47. Should the ball be caught andthe purchaser release the knob 43 the spring 44 will return the figure 36 to the expanel and will dispose the v be delivered into the tray 48 immediately after such release. If it is desired not to the receptacle 37 into register with the aperture 38., a note instructing the purchaser to perform the operation manually might be disj played on the front of the cabinet.

What I claim as my lnvention is:

'. In a vending machine, an article releasing mechanism comprising a horizontally disposed slidably mounted pull rod, the lower edge of said pull rod being provided with incline, a vertically extending chute positioned below said pull rod in spaced relatlon thereto, said chute comprising a flat coin receiving tube having a coin receiving duct of a width only slightly greater than the thickness of the coin to be introduced therein, said chute being arranged with the major transverse axis thereof paralleling said pull rod and being provided with registering openings affording a passage extendin through the chute at right angles to the pull rod, a pivotally mounted lever provided at its upper end with a horizontal extenslon projecting transversely across the upper portion of said chute and engaging the lower edge of the pull rod immediately adjacent said notch, the lower end of said lever besaid tongue being shaped to provide a verti cal face opposing one of theside walls of the chute and adapted to be normally held in a plane flush with the inner surface of the opposite side wall of the chute, there being a pmjection from the tongue extending beyond said face to provide a support for the edge of a coin having its thickness interposed between said face and the opposing side wall of the chute and a light spring connected to said lever and normally tending to swing the lower portion of the lever in the direction of the chute.

Dated at Vancouver, B. 0., this 9th day of March, 1927 FRED MIDDLETON SMITH.

provide means for returning 

